Silicon wire waveguides are used as a platform for ultra-small photonic integrated circuits (PICs). In a typical structure, a silicon core with high refractive index is surrounded by a low refractive index material (referred to as cladding) such as silicon dioxide, or sometimes silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, or air. This structure forms an optical waveguide, typically used at communications wavelengths such as 1310 nm or 1550 nm bands. Silicon PIC chips include a lithographically-defined layout of single mode and multimode waveguide elements, which form a photonic circuit. In some photonic integrated circuits, the output of photonic cells is intended to contain a single polarization (e.g., as opposed to other circuits with two orthogonal polarizations). However, due to manufacturing tolerances or due to intrinsic electro-magnetic properties of the cells, the output light may contain a fraction of an unwanted polarization other than the desired single polarization. Thus, it is desirable to add a polarization component to the waveguide structure or PIC chip. Further, it is desirable to form the polarization component with the waveguide structure or PIC chip using the same manufacturing platform.